September 02, 2004

Bullet Points

Back from hiatus y'all -- and with a new fiance in tow (yes friends, it's official: I've finally taken the plunge). As you can imagine, my mind is wading in too many personal -- not to mention work-related -- affairs for me to be concerned about indulging in too many diversions these past few weeks, least of all this blog. (Think it's bad now, wait 'til marriage! -- ed).

But now that I've resigned myself to the fact I may never catch up to the massive pile of work proliferating on my desk (it's an endemic condition for us scattered brained entrepreneurs I've learned) and a now burgeoning list of marriage-related errands, I really need an outlet. So here's a few running items on the TMB radar I've been distracting myself with:

    * Are you skeptical that California's immigrant action hero governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, aspires to, nay, lusts after the highest office in the land? Will never happen you say? Don't tell these people. Interestingly enough, Schwarzenegger's 23 minute, prime-time speech at the RNC last week -- i.e., his introductory platform for a future run at the Presidency -- mentioned America 47 times but only mentioned Bush by name 6 times. Hmm...

    * My favorite Spanish-language media mogul, Univision's Jerry Perrenchio, was so enamored of Arnold's RNC speech, he dropped a cool quarter of a million into the Governator's campaign.

    * A few weeks back, Debra Dickerson (author "End of Blackness") became the source of consternation around some quarters of the blogosphere with her Slate piece "Racist Like Me". No doubt her latest missive about raising her own biracial children will ruffle a few more feathers. Sample:

      I make my living writing about race, but once I'm home with my family, I'm just a wife and mom. No one is more surprised by that than I am. When I was pregnant the first time, I subjected my husband to long lectures about being the father of black children. I gave the man homework, like reading Toni Morrison's books and watching my bootleg Eyes on the Prize video history of the civil rights movement. Then, when each child was born Klan-robe white, my husband turned the tables: "Debra, we have to talk about you being the mother of white children."

    * UCB Linguist Prof, John McWhorter, in the L.A. Times: "Why I'm Black, Not African American". Excerpt: "Since the late 1980s, I have gone along with using "African American" for the same reason that we throw rice at a bride — because everybody else was doing it. But no more. From now on, in my writings on race I will be returning to the word I grew up with, which reminds me of my true self and my ancestors who worked here to help make my life possible: Black."

    * Chino Latinos? It's more common than you think. Now I wonder if that's what my future children will be called. (credit: Hispanic Trending)

    * Lastly, from the Damn-Did-He-Really-Say-That? Dept: Jesus himself would not vote for Obama, says Keyes. What in the world were Illinois Republicans thinking (smoking) when they nominated this guy to represent them in the Senate?

Posted by thomas at September 2, 2004 05:17 PM | TrackBack